The news is that Suffolk County Council plans to cut up to 30 per cent from its £1.1 billion annual budget over the next three years – by outsourcing most of its services. How this will be achieved, and with what results both in terms of savings and quality of services, remains to be seen. But it’s important to recognise the consequences of local authorities taking this route.
In the face of substantial budget cuts, local government is forced to seek radical ways of delivering real savings, and outsourcing is a strong option. Many have already outsourced some services, so this will simply represent an expansion or acceleration of such activity. No doubt central government departments will follow suit.
Councils will outsource to private sector organisations, but may also use voluntary sector and community groups where appropriate. However, these are unlikely to be employed where catering services or activities are involved.
Such changes will create new opportunities for catering contractors, and may also result in new sub-contracting arrangements. In turn, consultants and suppliers may then change – certainly over time.
All parts of the hospitality and catering services supply chain will want and need to monitor developments closely where they have existing workload to protect – or where the opportunity may be presented to win new contracts.
October 2010
This article was provided by einsidetrack.com